stone age institute publication series Series Editors Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth Stone Age Institute Gosport, Indiana and Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana Number 1. THE OLDOWAN: Case Studies into the Earliest Stone Age Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, editors Number 2. BREATHING LIFE INTO FOSSILS: Taphonomic Studies in Honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain Travis Rayne Pickering, Kathy Schick, and Nicholas Toth, editors Number 3. THE CUTTING EDGE: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Human Origins Kathy Schick, and Nicholas Toth, editors Number 4. THE HUMAN BRAIN EVOLVING: Paleoneurological Studies in Honor of Ralph L. Holloway Douglas Broadfield, Michael Yuan, Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth, editors STONE AGE INSTITUTE PUBLICATION SERIES NUMBER 3 Series Editors Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth the cutting edge: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Human Origins Editors Kathy Schick Stone Age Institute & Indiana University Nicholas Toth Stone Age Institute & Indiana University Stone Age Institute Press · www.stoneageinstitute.org 1392 W. Dittemore Road · Gosport, IN 47433 COVER CAPTIONS AND CREDITS Top: Homo habilis Utilizing Stone Tools. Painting by artist-naturalist Jay H. Matternes. Copyright 1995, Jay H. Matternes. Inspired by a prehistoric scenario by K. Schick and N. Toth in Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Origins and the Dawn of Technology (1993), Simon and Schuster, New York. Pp.147-149. Lower right: Whole fl ake of trachyte lava from the 2.6 million-year-old site of Gona EG-10, Ethiopia. Reported by S. Semaw (2006), “The Oldest Stone Artifacts from Gona (2.6-2.5 Ma), Afar, Ethiopia: Implications for Understanding the Earliest Stages of Knapping” in The Oldowan: Case Studies into the Earliest Stone Age, eds. N. Toth and K. Schick. Stone Age Institute Press, Gosport, Indiana. Pp. 43-75. Photo courtesy of Tim White. Lower left: Prehistoric cut-marks from a stone tool on Sterkfontein hominin partial cranium StW 53. Reported by T. Pickering, T. White, and N. Toth (2000) in “Cutmarks on a Plio-Pleistocene hominid from Sterkfontein, South Africa”. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 111, 579-584. Scanning electron micrograph by N. Toth. Published by the Stone Age Institute. ISBN-10: 0-9792-2762-3 ISBN-13: 978-0-9792-2762-2 Copyright © 2009, Stone Age Institute Press. All right reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. CHAPTER 4 ARCHAIC STONE INDUSTRIES FROM EAST AFRICA AND SOUTHERN EUROPE PRE-OLDOWAN AND OLDOWAN HENRY DE LUMLEY, DEBORAH BARSKY AND DOMINIQUE CAUCHE Over recent years, many discoveries have renewed Refi ts of fl akes onto cores allowed defi ne a system- our knowledge about the oldest stone industries and also atic reduction sequence resulting in the production of about the behaviour and lifestyle of the hominids that numerous, generally small-sized fl akes. For some cores made them, not only in East Africa, but also in the Near as many as fi fty pieces were refi tted. As is the case for East, in Trans Caucasia and in southern Europe. the Gona region sites, the Lokalalei assemblages do not If the fi rst tool-making hominids appear in East Af- comprise any standardized, small retouched tools on rica as early as 2.55 million years ago, they are present fl akes or debris, with the possible exception of a few in the Levant a little over 2 million years ago, as early as pieces. 1.81 million years ago at the gates of Europe in Trans- The archaic stone tools from the Omo Valley, such Caucasia, and a little over 1.4 million years ago on the as those from Omo 71 and Omo 84, dated to around 2,4 Mediterranean coasts of Europe (Figures 19 and 21). million years old, as well as those from Omo 57 and Omo 123, dated to around 2.34 million years old, dis- PRE-OLDOWAN OR ARCHAIC OLDOWAN covered and studied by Jean Chevaillon, yielded very numerous small quartz fl akes, with an average size of The Gona and Ounda Gona sites in Ethiopia, dated 2 to 3 cm, most often showing reduced or null striking to a little over 2.5 million years old, have yielded lithics platforms and fl at inner surfaces, bearing witness to the characterized largely by knapping products (Figure 1): frequent use of bipolar knapping on an anvil. However, fl akes and angular fragments (de Lumley, 2006; Semaw, pebble tools and percussion instruments are rare or ab- 2000 and 2005; Semaw et al., 1997 and 2003). Manufac- sent. There are no small retouched tools. Yet fl ake edges tured pebbles are rare. Bipolar knapping on an anvil was often show irregular use retouch and chips attesting to often practiced while hand-held knapping methods em- their use. ployed were sometimes unifacial, bifacial or even mul- Locally available raw materials, mainly quartz and tifacial. Core exploitation was relatively intense, with some basalt, were used in the fabrication of the stone tool numerous, generally small sized fl akes removed from assemblage from the Fejej FJ-1 site in the southern Omo each piece. The assemblage does not include standard- area of Ethiopia, around fi ve kilometres from the Ken- ized small retouched tools shaped by secondary retouch yan border (Barsky et al., 2006; de Lumley et al., 2004a modifying the edge of a fl ake or angular fragment. and 2004b; Chapon, 2007). Pebbles used were collected The Lokalalei 1 and 2C sites in Kenya, in the Na- from the environment immediately surrounding the site; chukui Formation dated to 2.340 million years old, dis- a few hundred meters at the most. Both bipolar knapping covered and studied by Hélène Roche and Pierre-Jean on an anvil and hand held techniques were used during Texier, offer an industry similar to that from the Gona knapping reduction sequences which were mainly unifa- sites (Roche et al., 1999; Delagnes et al., 2005). The as- cial, sometimes bifacial and rarely multifacial. semblages comprise mainly non-retouched fl akes, angu- The assemblage is mainly composed of small-sized lar fragments and cores (Figure 2). fl akes and angular fragments (Figure 3). Pebble tools are 56 The Cutting Edge: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Human Origins Figure 1. Gona EG 10, Hadar, Ethiopia. 2.55 million years. Pre-Oldowan or Archaic Oldowan. 1 to 3: fl akes; 4: core; 5: chopper de Lumley et al. 57 Figure 2. Lokalalei 2C, West Turkana, Kenya. 2.2 million years. Pre-Oldowan or Archaic Oldowan. 1 to 4: fl akes; 5 and 6: cores; 7: percussion instrument. (from A. Delagnes et H. Roche, 2005). 58 The Cutting Edge: New Approaches to the Archaeology of Human Origins Figure 3. Fejej FJ-1, South Omo, Ethiopia. 1.96 million years. Pre-Oldowan or Archaic Oldowan. 1 to 3: fl akes; 4: core; 5: chopper. rare: choppers (pebbles showing a bevelled cutting edge South in Kenya (Plummer et al., 1999). The tools were shaped by one or several removals on a single face), a essentially made from quartz or volcanic rock types col- few core-scrapers (rostro-carénés; massive choppers lected from the area immediately surrounding the site. with abrupt, narrow and convex cutting edges) and rare Knapping was generally executed using the hand held chopping tools (pebbles showing a bevelled cutting edge technique most often with unifacial and unidirectional shaped by one or several removals on both faces). At this removals, sometimes with multipolar or centripetal re- site, once again, there are no intentionally shaped small movals. Bifacial knapping was rarely practiced. Multi- retouched tools on fl akes or angular fragments. polar orthogonal knapping is also present. Bipolar knap- In East Africa, presently known lithic assemblages ping on an anvil was quite often used. It is important to dating to before around 1.9 million years ago show com- underline that this type of percussion; bipolar simulta- mon characteristics (de Lumley, 2006; de Lumley, 2004a neously in two opposite directions, does not necessarily and 2004b). Such industries, dated to between 2.55 and signify a poorly mastered knapping technique, but rather 1.9 million years ago, have also been discovered in Ethi- a very effi cient way to extract fl akes or sharp fragments, opia, in the Hadar region (AL666) and in the Omo Valley from small crystalline pebbles. Thus, knapping methods (Ftji1, 2 and 5, Omo 71, 84, 57 and 123) and at Kanjera and techniques for fl ake production were chosen in ac- de Lumley et al. 59 cordance with the quality of raw materials and/or ini- human groups present in East Africa between 2.55 and tial bloc or pebble morphology. It is thus that humans 1.9 million years ago. chose essentially cubic blocks offering natural striking A drier milieu and the consecutive extension of a platforms. savannah type environment constrained some hominids Generally cores were abandoned after the extraction to consume larger quantities of grains, thus favouring the of only a few fl akes, especially when raw materials were development of large teeth (Paranthropus), while others of poor quality. However, when rocks were of fi ner qual- were oriented towards ever increasing meat consump- ity, for example fi ne grained basalt, reduction sequences tion. They were scavengers who, with the help of their were systematically more intensive, as Fejej FJ-1, and primitive tools, collected meat left on large Herbivore even up to fi fty fl akes for a core at the Lokalalei 2C site carcasses abandoned by large Carnivores (Dominguez- (Roche et al., 1999). Rodrigo et al., 2005; Semaw et al., 2003).